In my last post I took a look at the shadow side of our current cultural moment. The great success of Top Gun makes the most sense when we see that we are drowning in that shadow right now. The nostalgia is a welcome relief.
I also touched on the film American Beauty that came a decade after the original Top Gun. If Top Gun captured the peak of a particular cultural moment, American Beauty captured its breakdown and its transition into something else.
This is a fascinating subject, worth diving deeper into so we can understand well the changes that have happened and where we can go from here. To do that it is most useful to think about what could have been Lester Burnham’s (the protagonist in American Beauty) life trajectory if he had not been killed.
Remember, by the end of the film he has quit his well paying but soul destroying job, taken a job at a fast food joint, bought his Firebird, finally spoken his truth to his wife, caught her cheating, managed to seduce his daughter’s friend but then declined the sex. At this moment he is at peace and then he is shot dead.
The shooting is a convenient plot device to end the film but it leaves behind a great question - if he lived what would have been a good growth path for him now that he had thrown away his old life?
In order to break this down, we need to recap the Integral Model of consciousness growth. There are eight levels of human consciousness - Archaic(infra-red), Magic (purple), Ego-Centric(red), Mythic(amber), Rational(orange), Pluralistic(green), Integral(teal) and TransPersonal(turquoise).
I will go into these levels in more detail in a future post, for this post we need to just look at the the Egocentric, Mythic, Rational and Pluralistic levels. The Egocentric psyche is focussed on itself. It is id-dominated using Freudian terms. Accumulating power, domination often a relatively unconscious way.
The Mythic psyche is of the old cultural world, church/temple, family, strong gender roles, strong ideas of right and wrong. The purpose of life is to follow the rules as laid down by a divine power. This is the world of our grandparents.
The Rational psyche is of the modern scientific world. People no longer believe much of the old religion literally, if they practice they do so in a perfunctory way. Their focus is the accumulation of wealth and good lifestyle.
The Pluralistic psyche is of the new-age world. It has opened up to new perspectives, new cultures, new ways of living. It is eco-conscious and woman-centric.
We can easily see the difference between these levels by appreciating what people would typically eat at each level. A person at the Mythic level would be most comfortable with traditional food - recipes handed down from generations of family living. (Please note this is how most of the world still lives!) At the Rational level the preferred food would be a gourmet meal at a Michelin starred restaurant. At the Pluralistic level the preferred food would the kale and quinoa salad at Cafe Gratitude.
So we get the idea. Now let’s come back to American Beauty. Based on these descriptions it should be fairly obvious that Lester Burnham’s family was firmly at the Rational level. Achievement, material possessions, lifestyle were their preoccupations. At least they were for the wife anyway.
Lester was a sedated participant in this drama. What he was experiencing was the shadow side of this level. It no longer worked for him and his way of coping was to numb himself until he couldn’t any longer and snapped.
That is indeed how growth happens. When we are comfortable at the level we are at there are no questions. We go about our daily business peacefully. When we have outgrown that level disturbances come in and we go through the dark night of the soul until we simply have to take action.
So Lester goes through his crisis and sheds the skin of the life he is in. Where can he go next?
The Firebird car and teenage girl chasing isn’t going to cut it. It is natural to reach for these things at the start of this kind of crisis. It’s a stepping back to the Egocentric level. At least I can get high! I can remember what it was like to be 22! Something like that.
However it won’t last. Lester will find he has very little in common with the the 19 year old woman even though he finds her attractive physically. The Thunderbird will get old quickly. The job at the fast food joint will become tedious soon enough. If he remains in this psychic space he will fade and perish quickly.
The only useful path for Lester is upward to the next level. He must enter the Pluralistic space fully. Just by throwing away his old life he is on the way there, he is recognizing there are alternate ways of being.
Which new way will be good for him? For that he needs to go on a voyage of self-discovery to know who he is. He has to, as cheesy and new agey as it sounds, get in touch with his feelings. He has to open to his feminine side, that is the growth path. Maybe this will involve some travel abroad, visiting India (like Ram Dass did), maybe taking up a meditation practice, maybe becoming a healer of some kind or whatever else.
At the pluralistic level men become feminine and women become masculine. If Lester goes on this voyage of self-discovery he can, if he is lucky, find himself a new profession (or a better version of his old one), a new woman who is better for him and settle down to a happier life. His daughter will respect him more too. I say lucky because time is not on his side.
In contrast, the Top Gun pilots as portrayed do seem to be enjoying their work. That’s a good lesson; are you following your bliss, as Joseph Campbell exhorted people to do? Lester most definitely isn’t, and that’s why he has to go on this voyage of self-discovery to know what his bliss is.
Still, it is not hard to see that the psyche as portrayed in Top Gun straddles the Egocentric, Mythic and Rational levels and the enjoyment of the work is at least in part tied into the mythic framework of the time. If there is a mortal enemy at the gates, it’s very easy to feel motivated to fly the planes. Other aspects of the mythology help too, like the idea of American exceptionalism, the Maverick who goes his own way, pushing the limits of his abilities while putting aside all that new agey feelings mumbo jumbo, tossing his inner child down the well as it were.
Lester cannot tap into this mythology, it no longer works for the setup he is in. He has to go listen to his feelings, however much of a macho posture he takes while doing so.
The transition from masculine to feminine is inevitable in the growth of a culture. It is not the final step though. As I wrote in the previous post, at least some of the sourness of our current zeitgeist come from the shadow side of this Pluralistic level.
To heal out of this we can’t go back, no matter how nostalgic it might seem. We have to move forward to the next level, the Integral level. Here we are able to hold all the previous levels that have come, we are able to embody their strengths. We are also conscious of and have integrated their shadow sides so we do not act unconsciously out of them.
We do not need to throw the baby out with the bathwater. There is plenty of good in all the levels. Having a well defined ego is not a bad thing. American mythology still has plenty to offer. The Indian rocket scientist Dr Abdul Kalam visited his counterparts in the US. His observation of American people - they are doers. They buckle down and get things done. This is a very good thing. It is also a very good thing that the mortal enemy is no more and it would be a huge evolution of human consciousness if war became obsolete.
The Pluralistic level has brought a lot of positive change as well. Whereas before only straight white men were given the spotlight, now people of all other types and colors get their contributions recognized. (And it is not a zero sum game, it is a mistake to treat it as one.) We are conscious now of our impact on the environment. Women have a chance now to discover and live their own bliss.
Our Pluralistic world is so much more compassionate. I saw Top Gun Maverick in a theater where the lights were on and the sound was down because it was a low sensory showing for those who can’t handle the booming sound and darkness of the traditional theater. I know my younger brother would have loved this growing up in India. Due to some health issues his hearing was very sensitive, he couldn’t handle the loud theater sound so couldn’t ever go to the theater. If he were growing up in today’s America, he would have been able to.
We have to bring it all together at this Integral level. Masculine and feminine must come together in harmony again, this time as fully integrated souls. Despite all the gloom and doom there is plenty to be optimistic about that we will. The golden age for America is yet to come.